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The Peripheral

by William Gibson

Two futures linked by a virtual world

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Two futures linked by a virtual world

Flynne Fisher’s work in a rural America of scarce jobs brings her into a strange connection with Wilf Netherton, who lives decades later in a London shaped by a slow-motion apocalypse. The link begins when Flynne takes over her brother’s security shifts in a game prototype and witnesses a crime in its simulated city. Gibson uses that setup to join contrasting worlds: one marked by limited prospects, the other by post-apocalyptic inequality and technological access to the past. The novel’s science-fiction premise centers on how an encounter across time can unsettle both societies.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Science-fiction readers interested in future societies and technology linking different eras.
  • Readers drawn to stories that connect working-class life with questions of inequality and power.
  • Fans of William Gibson’s science fiction.

Themes

Virtual worlds and technologyInequality across societiesConnections between past and futureScarcity and opportunity

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

The New York Times bestselling author of Neuromancer and Agency presents a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that takes a terrifying look into the future.

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Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she's trying to avoid. Her brother Burton lives on money from the Veterans Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines' elite Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. She made more as a combat scout in an online game, playing for a rich man, but she's had to let the shooter games go.

Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there aren't many have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.

Burton's been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. He's got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game's not a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad.

Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf's, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass.
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Customer reviews

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AlbakiReads
Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

Smooth.